Svahn, F

Abstract [en]

Inspired by Herbert Simon€™s notion of nearly decomposable systems, researchers have examined modularity as a powerful approach to manage technological change in product innovation. We articulate this approach as the hierarchy-of-parts architecture explain how it emphasizes decomposition of a design into loosely coupled parts subsequent aggregation of these into an industrial product. To realize the scale benefits of modularity, firms successively freeze design specifications before production therefore only allow limited windows of functionality design redesign. This makes it difficult to take advantage of the increased speed by which digitized products can be developed modified. To address this problem, we draw on Christopher Alexander€™s notion of design patterns to introduce a complementary approach to manage technological change that is resilient to digital technology. We articulate this approach as the network-of-patterns architecture explain how it emphasizes generalization of ideas into patterns subsequent specialization of patterns for different design purposes. In response to the increased digitization of industrial products, we demonstrate the value of complementing hierarchy-of-parts thinking with network-of-patterns thinking through a case study of infotainment architecture at an automaker. As a result, we contribute to the literature on managing products in the digital age: we highlight the properties of digital technology that increase the speed by which digitized products can be redesigned, we offer the notion of architectural frames propose hierarchy-of-parts network-of-patterns as frames to support innovation of digitized products, we outline an agenda for future research that reconsiders the work of Simon Alexander as well as their followers to address key challenges in innovating digitized products._x000D_